BBC profiles the current leadership structure of Al Qaeda. Take some of this information with a grain of salt. I noticed a few howlers including the description of Abu Ghaith as a "nominal al-Qaeda spokesman" -- whatever:
Abu Hamza al-Muhajir/Abu Ayyub al-Masri
Little is known about the man named as successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the militant leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq killed in a US air strike.
In a website statement, the al-Qaeda in Iraq group said Abu Hamza al-Muhajir was "knowledgeable" and had a history of fighting a holy war.
Muhajir was not among the names al-Qaeda analysts had expected as a probable successor, and is thought to be a pseudonym.
The US military has said it believes him to be an Egyptian militant based in Baghdad, Abu Ayyub al-Masri.
He is understood to have trained in Afghanistan and helped Zarqawi form the first al-Qaeda cell in Baghdad.
Sheikh Said
A Saudi, Said is Bin Laden's brother-in-law and al-Qaeda's financial controller. He first linked up with Bin Laden in Sudan during the late 1990s.
US investigators believe he wired money to Mohammed Atta, alleged ringleader of the hijackers, shortly before the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington.
Saif al-Adel
An Egyptian in his late 30s, al-Adel is Bin Laden's security chief.
He is believed to have assumed many of the late Mohammed Atef's duties in al-Qaeda.
He was a colonel in the Egyptian army but joined the mujahideen fighting to expel the Soviets from Afghanistan.
He is also suspected of teaching militants to use explosives and training some of the 11 September hijackers.
He has been linked to the bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. The US further accuses him of training the Somali fighters who killed 18 US servicemen in Mogadishu in 1993.
In 1987, Egypt accused Adel - whose real name is Muhammad Ibrahim Makkawi - of trying to establish a military wing of the militant Islamic group al-Jihad, and of trying to overthrow the government.
Abu Mohammed al-Masri
Also Egyptian, he is frequently believed to use the name Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah and to be about 40 years old.
He ran al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan, including the al-Farooq camp near Kandahar.
He is also believed to have been involved in the East Africa embassy bombings. The US has put a bounty of $5m on his head.
Sulaiman Abu Ghaith
Nominal al-Qaeda spokesman, Abu Ghaith is a Kuwaiti and believed to be in his mid-30s.
A former religious studies teacher, he left Kuwait in 2000.
He was stripped of his citizenship after an appearance on Qatar-based al-Jazeera television in which he vowed retaliation for US air strikes against Afghanistan.
Bin Laden can be seen poking fun at him in one of the videotapes released since 11 September.
In July 2003, a Kuwaiti minister said the Iranian government had offered to extradite Abu Ghaith to Kuwait, but that Kuwait had refused to take him. It is unclear whether he is currently in Iranian custody, or indeed in Iran at all.
Thirwat Salah Shirhata
Also Egyptian, Shirhata is al-Zawahiri's deputy in the Egyptian Islamic Jihad group.
He has received two death sentences in absentia in Egypt for alleged terrorist activities.
Omar al-Faruq
Omar al-Faruq, born in Kuwait to Iraqi parents, was one of four "dangerous enemy combatants" to escape from the main US base in Afghanistan in July 2005. All four remain on the run.
Al-Faruq had been arrested in June 2002 in a village an hour from Jakarta in Indonesia. He had married a local woman and seemed to have blended successfully into the community.
Investigators fear that men like al-Faruq have been linking al-Qaeda to other militant Islamic groups in South-East Asia.
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